Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Steger, IL

Steger was founded in 1891 by Chicago real estate interests and first named Columbia Heights, in honor of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition Chicago was preparing to host.

The village owes its name to John Valentine Steger, a German immigrant who arrived in America in 1871 with just 12 cents in his pocket and went on to build what was then the largest piano manufactory in the world.

Steger opened his piano factory on about 20 acres beside the railroad in 1893; by 1904 the plant covered 23 acres and could turn out 16,000 pianos a year.

When the settlement reached 324 residents and incorporated in December 1896, John Steger paid $400 toward the incorporation costs on the condition that the town take his name instead of Columbia Heights.

By 1920 Steger was being called the 'piano capital of the world,' producing more than a hundred pianos a day, and at its peak the Steger and Sons works employed about 1,400 people.

After piano making faded, part of the old factory complex found a second life in 1932 as the Steger Furniture Company, which manufactured radio cabinets there for many years.

Steger literally straddles two counties: Steger Road forms the boundary between Cook County to the north and Will County to the south, even though the village is about 35 miles south of downtown Chicago.

Steger's population has been remarkably stable for decades: 9,682 people in 2000, 9,570 in 2010 and 9,584 in the 2020 census.

Census Bureau survey estimates count about 4,050 households in Steger, averaging roughly 2.3 people per household.

Because Steger sits in two counties, its residents vote in two different congressional districts: the Cook County side in Illinois' 2nd district and the Will County side in the 11th.